DD is having a last-minute panic that economics is too competitive and she won’t get any offers. Can anyone help me per her off the ceiling?

[DelinquentSnails]

DD is all but ready to submit her university applications. She is very keen to do a BSc in economics but after a great big doom scrolling session last night is convinced that economics is far too competitive, even at mid-tier universities and she has no chance of getting an offer. Apparently even kids with 3A* get routinely rejected. Her second choice is actuarial science, but she loves economics.

She has GCSE grades 9(maths)88777665 (English lang, she’s dyslexic) and is predicted A* economics, A maths, A classics. EPQ around econometrics. She has done a week long economic summer school, a week of virtual work experience with one of the Big Four and has lots of extracurricular like choral singing, book club, volunteering.

She hoped to apply for BSc economics at RHUL, Southampton, Birmingham, York and UEA . How founded in reality might her concerns be? Are there any words (or preferably data) that might reassure her?

I know Loughborough was in clearing for economics the year before last. I would have thought she’d have a very good chance there if interested.

I think there’s economics and there’s economics. You can do BA or BSc at many places. My DD isn’t as gifted at maths as you’d need to be for the top unis but she is very motivated and applies herself. She doesn’t want a stellar career in finance in the city which a lot of people applying to top unis seem to. She is very interested in public policy stuff which Sussex and UEA seem to have a strong record on. I like to think there will still be room for someone like her to do well. When we visited Birmingham Open Day the Professor giving the talk pointed out that he doesn’t have maths A level himself.

Would your DD consider Bath, Leeds, Exeter, Birmingham or Nottingham? Those are higher up the league tables than Sussex or UEA but lower than COWIE places.

Oh sorry I see she has Birmingham down already. Some of those others though? None of them need further maths

@OhDear111 I think with her grade profile she should be looking at the likes of Exeter, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds - these are all better than she has imo. She may also want to consider economics and something eg accounting/business etc I would be 2 better unis and then 3 safer, she could also look at Cardiff.

If she is st a state school she could be in- line for a contextual offer, Bristol give these out like sweeties.

Thanks for the ideas about different universities. There are some great options on that list. She has visited the ones she will applied for and she liked them all (12 open days in total!)

To be honest, her preferences are for the two least competitive, UEA and RHUL. I think she might also take out Birmingham and swap in Surrey as she likes the campus and the good links to industry for the year in business (although she might even do a year abroad). Maybe also QMUL instead of Southampton.

While other (RG) unis look better on paper we’ve had lots of other factors to consider and she (and we) feel a campus university closer to home might well be the best option at this point. At the moment, she is thriving socially, emotionally and academically but it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride to get to this point and she’d rather take it safely.

Shes doing absolutely the right thing. A happy student will always do better than an unhappy one, whatever the rankings say.

I went to Oxford, my DD is at Aberystwyth, she gets much more involved in uni things than I did because, unlike me, she has no fears that everyone around her is smarter than her. She has the confidence to do a part time receptionist job where anything can be thrown at her because she believes in herself.

My DD just got an unconditional offer from York too so that’s 4/4 Economics offers (UEA, Sussex, Sheffield, York) for someone with no maths A level and lower grades than your DD (AAB albeit they are grades in hand) The offers all came in within a week of her applying. I’d say your DD has nothing at all to worry about and they’ll be biting her hand off.

@ThePure Thank you and very well done to your daughter. She must be thrilled with those offers. Where will she choose?
I went to Sheffield and loved it 😊

@HPFA I agree. I turned down Oxford and chose Sheffield. For all the wrong reasons probably, Jarvis Cocker was in his prime. But I had a great time there, did loads of activities, got a relatively easy First and then went to Cambridge for post grad- when I was more intellectually mature and Britpop was a bit less cool.

Is further maths really a prerequisite? Blimey I’d be stuffed these days - I did PPE at Oxford without any economics experience and very ropey maths and came out ok.

I think adding in Uni of Surrey would be a good idea as it has a lovely campus and the year in industry would be a definite bonus for applying for jobs afterwards.

I would not discount Uni of Southampton in favour of a London uni as it sounds as though your dd may be suited to campus unis in smaller cities. Southampton has an excellent range of societies and is affordable compared with most places in the south.

@Airelles@DelinquentSnails The year out is not guaranteed. The course has an option of a placement year. The universities don’t place students on them. The students have to apply for “vacancies” the university is told about , or find them themselves, and they might just help with writing the cv and explain the process. They don’t match students to placements and there’s not enough to go round.

I would strongly suggest you ask how many actually get the year out and ask the students how much effort it took. NM threads have chronicled the issues. Many students will apply for numerous placements and they are getting more and more difficult to get. Surrey won’t have better links than any other university. It’s near London snd all the students at all the universities want London placements. In my view it’s just another thing to worry about and you need to do a proper evaluation - time spent applying, interviews and rejections (which could numerous) or, as frequently happens, no reply at all. Please be very careful because it’s anything but easy.

@OhDear111, I find your comment a bit odd - I wasn't being unfair on the boys - I was responding to the OPs comment which happened to refer to boys. I was saying it's better to be low key about things. I have two lovely boys myself.

Anyway let's not derail this thread which is about reassurance for the OP's DD.

Yes. Agreed.

Really?? Both mine went to state schools in a small Northern town and neither of them received a contextual offer from anywhere!

🤣🍬🤣🍬🤣🍬🤣🍬🤣

Yes really @Sheeppigthere is a list of contextual offer schools, it’s a running joke at the local comp!

Bristol does have a list of schools. Yes, Bristol is great for Economics. It’s competitive though and the lack of FM might be a concern. Is she at a state school where results aren’t great. Deprived area is not the sole criteria at Bristol - it’s school performance too. DC usually do better at universities they think suit them. Bristol will have lots of go getting dc targeting city jobs - those confident boys again!

I imagine she will get offers from all those universities but she may want to add a more aspirational university. If she likes campus unversities, she could consider Loughborough or Surrey or Nottingham.

Why is Surrey more aspirational? York and Birmingham and Southampton are RG and top 20 in CUG. Surrey is 30. RHUL is 36 and UEA 32. So little difference and few employers will care. Nottingham is top 10 but Loughborough is 19 so cannot see the advantage of that one as two of her choices are 17 and 18. Again, employers won’t be bothered. However Surrey is handy for work experience as it’s close to London but so is RHUL. QMUL is ranked 25 and a bit more of a buzzy area than RHUL. Depends what you went though.

Get the application in! It is way more stressful when it is waiting to be submitted.

Reassure her that even if she got 5 rejections (extremely unlikely) then she can reapply to other courses - UCAS extra. Then after that there is clearing. Then taking a gap year and reapplying. So there are loads of options. And she doesn’t need to catastrophise quite yet.

https://www.ucas.com/connect/blogs/some-extra-advice

Universities are desperate for undergrads at the moment due to the fall in international post grads. Last year’s clearing were offering courses with normal tariffs of AAA as BCC from mid range unis. She’ll be fine.

My DC has 4 offers for econ from Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham and Sheffield with A*AB predicted and zilch super curricular. Rejected from Manchester. She should be fine

Can’t edit my post for some reason but given the desperation to increase student numbers this is a good time to add a few aspirational choices to your list.

I know someone who got into York through clearing with BBC this year. She will be fine.